The “They’ll-take-it-from-me” Principle

So the Democrats ran the table. They now govern from the Whitehouse to the Courthouse. The long, cold night is over and working people are looking forward with hope to a new dawn.

A lot of us unionized state employees went through a dozen cold, dark years of the Republican Administrations of Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum. We had to fight every inch of the way. Our wages and benefits barely kept up with inflation.

Then a new day dawned. A Democrat was elected to be our boss. Glory and salvation was at hand. But, Jim Doyle proceeded to freeze our wages, hike our out-of-pocket insurance premiums, cut jobs and continue $500 million in contracting out.

Rarely do we get a glimpse under the skirt of the body politic. One such opportunity came when David Dinkins was running for Mayor of New York a few years back. Dinkins, a liberal Democrat, “community leader” and designated “friend of labor” was facing a budget deficit and was making his pitch to a skeptical capitalist class. This account from the New York Times:

Addressing potential Wall Street contributors last week, Mr. Dinkins said…that looming budget gaps make it unlikely the next mayor will have much to give away. “So it may well be that I’ll have to tell some of my friends they cannot have the things they want,” he said. “But they’ll take it from me.”

And, that’s just how it went down. Dinkins was elected and he stuck it to the unions and to the “community.” And, the union bureaucracy “took it” from him. Just like Doyle stuck it to state employees, without a whimper from the bigwigs at AFSCME Council 24 and AFT-Wisconsin.

This “They’ll-take-it-from-me” principle is at the heart of the two-party shell game we call politics in this country. The fundamental problem is that the U.S. working class has no independent political voice, so our message is told by pro-capitalist union bureaucrats. And, the honchos who run the AFL-CIO/Change to Win Coalition see the unions as nothing more than muscle for the Democratic Party. They hold a union member card and a Democratic Party member card, and there’s no question which trumps. The Eleventh Commandment for these people is: Thou shalt not criticize a sitting Democrat.

Imagine the ruckus if Scott McCallum had beaten Doyle in 2002 and announced a freeze on state employee wages, a hike in insurance premiums, continued contracting out and a promise to cut 10,000 state jobs. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. Just recall the short, stormy reign of Governor McCollum when unions rallied at the Capitol to denounce his proposed budget and then we launched the “A Deal Is A Deal” campaign. It was a rare show of unity between AFSCME, AFT-W and SEIU. And an even rarer show of rank-and-file mobilization.
Seen anything like that since the Dems took over?

And you won’t either. Because when it comes time to stick it to working people—from the Whitehouse to the Courthouse—no one can do it better than the liberal Democrats. Because, as David Dinkins told his capitalist keepers: They’ll take it from me.